Friday, September 14, 2018

Krizette Laureta Chu, Supertyphoon Ompong, Relief Goods, Etc.

Krizette Laureta Chu, a staunch defender and supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte has posted a long rant on Facebook that has gone viral. As I write this, the post has nearly eight thousand (8000) shares. I have to address her post because it had sweeping statements and claims that she didn't bother to support with data or anything that can at least make them believable. You can read her post on Facebook here (if it still exists). If you are not on Facebook, I've copied and pasted her post below:

"I just saw a post by some woman that said that, in the past, a lot of people used to buy relief goods before a typhoon hit to give away. Bibili ka daw ng tubig para daw sa mga less fortunate para ipamigay sa kanila.

I cant believe people are politicizing while we're facing a natural disaster that's projected to be really huge.

But let me just say this:

In the two years that Duterte has been President, more than 10 major typhoons have come and gone, but people havent been actively fundraising... EVEN BEFORE inflation hit. TV stations that used to do fundraising, wala na. So wala pa yung inflation, hindi na nag fufundraise. Yung Red Cross callouts, di na rin sikat.

Darling, people not frantic over donating? it's not because of inflation. It's because of efficiency.

Before people used to panic about fellow Pinoys kasi TAMAD at WALANG PUSO ang government ni Aquino.

We had to help because Dinky Soliman was a lazy ass who let rice rot and who let people starve. Kasi kaya nilang magutom ang Pilipino kasi nga, "Romualdez ka at Aquino ang Presidente."

As a Filipino with conscience, how could you not have helped?

But now, with a government as good as Duterte's, you know our fellow Filipinos are going to be taken care of. Panatag ka, panatag na panatag ka kasi we are being led by the one man who made it to Leyte a day after Yolanda when most roads were impassable with a crew of doctors. If he could help people as a small time Mayor, what could he do as a President?

I really cannot stomach posts na nag prepretend maging concerned, pero puro ka chararatan. Walang konsensya."
The post was accompanied by the following photo. If by any reason, you can't see the photo below, it's of DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) and military personnel unloading DSWD relief supplies on a military plane. Also in the photo is the following text: "DSWD, ihahatid na sa Luzon partikular sa Cagayan, Isabela, Ifugao, Aurora, Quezon, Batanes at sa iba pang lugar ang mga food packs at iba pang mahahalagang kagamitan bilang paghahanda sa pagtama ng Supertyphoon Ompong."

English translation: "DSWD now bringing to Luzon, in particular Cagayan, Isabela, Ifugao, Aurora, Quezon, Batanes, and other places, food packs and other important supplies as preparation for Supertyphoon Ompong."

The photo accompanying Krizette Laureta Chu's post on Facebook. The photo is from 2015, not 2018.

1. The photo she used is a photo from 2015, not 2018. It was during relief operations for Typhoon Lando. The Philippine Air Force, Army, National Police, the Bureau of Fire Protection, and local governments were cooperating to unload relief supplies from the Department of Social Welfare and Development which were to be sent to Aurora. The irony here is on another level. She's praising relief efforts by Duterte while lambasting relief efforts in the previous administration. But the photo she used is that of relief efforts by the previous administration during Typhoon Lando in 2015.

2. "I just saw a post by some woman that said that, in the past, a lot of people used to buy relief goods before a typhoon hit to give away. Bibili ka daw ng tubig para daw sa mga less fortunate para ipamigay sa kanila.
Now daw, you go to a grocery and kulang ng tao kasi daw sa inflation. Wala na daw nag dodonate ng goods dahil sa inflation." The keywords here are "by some woman" and "daw". Who is this "some woman"? Does she exist? Or did Chu just invent her just so she has something to anchor her claims?

3. Chu claims that people haven't been actively fundraising during Duterte's term because people know that they "are going to be taken care of". Data, statistics, citations, etc. Please? That is nothing but a claim. Show me the numbers. Show me the data. Show me the trends. And I'll believe you. Dinamay mo pa fund raising events by television stations and the Red Cross. Of the thousands of people who have shared your post, there's probably a ton of them who think less now of the stations and Red Cross. Which is sad because television stations and the Red Cross play very important roles during disasters and the relief efforts that often ensue.

4. Chu says that she "can't believe people are politicizing while we're facing a natural disaster". Look who's talking. That's exactly what she did. In her rant of a post, she politicized a natural disaster. And she blatantly used a misleading photo to boot. The irony here is on level 100.

5. And then of course, there's the look-at-me-and-my-high-horse comment about giving relief goods. Why don't you just inform people to help in any way they can without guilt tripping them? In times like these, there's no room for misplaced sarcasm. Lahat naman tayo gustong tumulong kung may kakyanan tayong tumulong.

Reading through her responses to people calling her out about her use of the wrong photo, she seems to be unapologetic. She doesn't seem to realize the irony in her post. She basically praised Duterte's relief efforts by using a photo from the previous administration's relief efforts from three years ago. It doesn't get any more ironic than that. Honestly, I think she sees the irony and she knows what she did was wrong. She is just too deep in the Duterte dugout that admitting to her error is out of the question. This is fanaticism.

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